simra.net Doing stuff since 1973

Greg Dudek has a pointed opinion piece on Microsoft Robotics Studio and the reaction to it from the academic side. It sounds like the space of robot control software is starting to heat up a little. There is a long history of anti-microsoft sentiment in academics, and I prefer to reserve judgement for now- MSRS has some powerful features that no other existing controller can match. The central questions revolve around whether it's good for the community if Microsoft becomes the only development platform for robotics, and what, in the long run that development platform might turn out to be for consumer robotics. The main competition is Player/Stage which is a nice piece of work but remains in an academic niche.

[Disclaimer, I'm a former Microsoftie, my current job involves MSRS development and Greg was my PhD supervisor]